Into the Wood Chipper

Physics and Honors Physics endured their Thermodynamics exams today and, luckily, most made it out alive. A few folks need to go through the material more thoroughly so that they are prepared when it appears on the final exam. Tomorrow, these courses will start their discussion of simple harmonic motion and the energy conversions involved in simple harmonic motion. Once we add some descriptors to SHM, like frequency and period, we will begin to connect SHM to the concept of waves. The lab for Honors Physics on Friday will permit students to mathematically model simple harmonic motion for a mass oscillating on a spring. The Physics lab for SHM on Monday will concern the motion of pendulums.

Physical Science was introduced to wave interactions. We discussed reflection, refraction, diffraction and started in on wave interference. Make sure you can define, differentiate and discuss an example of each of these. Although we will go into these concepts in more detail in the sound and light chapters, you should have a solid grounding in the general ideas before moving on to those chapters. Test is currently scheduled for next Tuesday, and I'll also be collecting this chapter's daily objective answers.